Results for "space"

A "virtual telescope" which owes its precision not to complex, high-strength optics but to precisely flying a pair of satellites in tandem and combining the data from each could help the hunt for Earth-like planets in the galaxy and even picture the event horizon of a black hole, NASA scientists suggest. Although space telescopes like Hubble have been operating for several decades, the new virtual telescope project will take a distinctively different approach, initially using two CubeSats - tiny satellites far cheaper and easier to launch, thanks to their compact and standardized design - that would each contribute a part of the overall vision process.

"In space, nobody can hear you scream." That tagline is growing less relevant by the day. We've heard sounds that were recorded deep in the ocean, and thanks to NASA's various efforts, we've heard sounds from outer space. Keeping track of these audio files isn't terribly simple, however, and so the next time you feel like firing up the sound of radio waves inside Earth's atmosphere at your next party, NASA wants to make sure you can do it hassle-free.

Aside from smartwatches, the other fastest growing tech obsession is in the field of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or UAVs, or as they are more popularly, or unpopularly, known, drones. But with every budding technology, there are often many and sometimes competing platforms, systems, software, and players. In order to foster development that is more oriented towards the open source culture, the Linux Foundation got the ball rolling and set up the Dronecode Project to provide the needed organizational and legal structures to support open source UAV efforts.

Not for nothing is it said that we know more about the surface of the moon and nearby planets than we do about the ocean floor, and things have got a whole lot more interesting down there with the discovery of thousands of new deep sea mountains. The freshly-discovered ranges - which could add more than 25,000 known peaks on top of the roughly 5,000 we'd already identified - come as researchers increase the resolution of marine modeling using not submarines and robots but satellites instead.

Not just for kids, mind you, are the collection of videos commissioned by the European Space Agency for the robotic space probe Rosetta. Named after the Rosetta Stone, translator of Egyptian scripts, Rosetta is placed in a number of cartoons that make learning fun. What could be better than that?

NASA has issued a new challenge, this one called the Balance Mass Challenge, which is seeking ideas from the public on payloads for the Mars Spacecraft. The challenge is detailed under the space agency's newly unveiled NASA Solve website, which was introduced at the World Maker Faire recently.

This week the world’s first commercial launch complex designed specifically for orbital missions has been the subject of a groundbreaking in Texas. Elon Musk of SpaceX and Governor Rick Perry have spoken up on the subject, noting that construction on the project will likely begin by mid-2015.

This week designer/artist Dirk Loechel has been tapped by the viral web for his massive chart collecting every ship in the sci-fi multiverse. For those of you looking for your favorite massive non-spaceship craft, the Death Star, stop looking: it’s not there. This chart collects every ship between 100 meters and 24,000 meters only.

The drone expert leading NASA's air traffic control scheme for autonomous flying vehicles expects the first applications to begin "inside of the next year," though warns drone deliveries aren't likely to get anywhere near mainstream for another five years. Dr Parimal H. Kopardekar, who manages NASA's NextGen-Airspace Project, predicted that agricultural monitoring using drones is likely to be the first application to get the green-light, as concerns around autonomous and remote-control vehicle safety in urban environments continue.

Northrop Grumman has shown off what it believes the military spaceplane of the future should look like, a futuristic and reusable aircraft designed as part of a $3.9m DARPA contract. The Experimental Spaceplane XS-1 would automate a large percentage of flight, as well as kick-start hypersonic aircraft development once more, Northrop Grumman claims, though the company still has competition.